I'll Sing For You
by Hikari Kaitou
Summary: Edgeworth is awoken by a fever-induced nightmare and Phoenix sings him a lullaby to help calm him down. PxE


**A/N: **I've been dying to try my hand at a Phoenix Wright fic for a while but this is my first try at actually doing it. Not sure I have the characterization down yet, but I took a shot at it. I wrote it for the kink meme.

The prompt was this: "Anon has a terrible weakness for sick!fic and guys who can sing. So I was thinking Edgeworth comes home from work with a fever, feeling crappy. Phoenix comes to his aid with tea, medicine, etc. and suggests that Edgeworth sleeps off his illness.

The problem is that Edgeworth is feeling too miserable to sleep (or maybe keeps waking up due to fever-induced nightmares), clearly a job for snuggles and a lullaby from caringlover!Phoenix! Whether Phoenix has a secret hidden talent for singing or totally fails is anon's choice.

I think the image of them falling asleep together after or Phoenix sitting at Edgeworth's bedside, holding his hand while he sleeps would be really sweet, but that's totally up to anon ;)"

Since my (not-so-secret) kink also happens to be sick!fic, I decided to give it a go. Here it is! (De-anoning! Oh no!)

(For all my previous subscribers, don't worry, I haven't given up on Their Love in Fifty Words. I'm just having a bit of trouble with the current chapter. It'll be up once I figure out what to do with it.)

* * *

Phoenix looked up in mild surprise from the vegetables he was chopping when he heard the front door slam. He glanced over at the clock; Edgeworth was home early. It was Phoenix's turn to cook dinner that night and he had been hoping to finish the soup before his lover returned from work. Edgeworth always called him a silly, sentimental fool, but Phoenix loved having chicken noodle soup and fresh bread on a cold winter's night; he had fond childhood memories of his mother's tradition of making the same meal for their family the night that winter break began. Phoenix set down his knife, turned the heat down a bit on the boiling chicken and went to greet Edgeworth with a cheerful smile.

"Miles, you're home early," Phoenix chirped. He wrapped his arms around Edgeworth's broad shoulders, pulling him close for a welcome home kiss. To Phoenix's chagrin, Edgeworth dodged the kiss, instead lowering his head so that it rested on the defense attorney's shoulder. Phoenix frowned slightly as Edgeworth's arms snaked around his waist, the increased contact making his shivering evident.

"What's wrong?" Phoenix asked quietly, threading his fingers into Edgeworth's smooth, smoky gray hair. "Bad day at the office?"

"You might say that…" Edgeworth mumbled, his voice unusually hoarse.

Phoenix said nothing, waiting for him to continue. When it didn't seem that any explanations were forthcoming, he prompted him. "Care to elaborate?"

"…When I requested my usual afternoon tea from my secretary, she told me that I looked feverish and insisted that I go home. Naturally, I was very busy, so I thanked her for her concern and dismissed her with no intention of returning home until I finished my work."

Phoenix smiled slightly. That was his Edgeworth, alright.

"But instead of doing what I asked of her," Edgeworth continued irritably, "she went and recruited backup."

"Gumshoe?" Phoenix guessed.

"As well as Franziska," the prosecutor added with a pathetic sniffle. "I was triple-teamed. Needless to say, it was rather humiliating. I had no choice but to comply for fear that they might gather more people to gawk at me in this pathetic state."

Phoenix guided Edgeworth over to the couch and sat down with him before pressing a slow, deliberate kiss to his forehead, checking his temperature. "Wow, that's quite a fever you've got," Phoenix marveled softly. "It's a good thing they sent you home."

Edgeworth's fever-flushed cheeks reddened further in embarrassment as he bowed his head in shame, and Phoenix could feel his heart warming immensely with affection toward him. The two of them had been in a relationship for more than a year and living together for almost six months, and yet Edgeworth still got flustered when his lover saw him in a moment of weakness. His current reaction was quite similar to the one Edgeworth gave when he woke in the morning to find that Phoenix had been admiring him as he slept. There had been a time before the two of them had admitted their feelings for each other when Phoenix had cursed Edgeworth's ridiculous pride but by now he had learned to appreciate it.

The defense attorney reached out to his sick boyfriend again, offering him a firm, reassuring hug. Edgeworth shivered again as Phoenix trailed light kisses up the side of his neck. He sighed in exhaustion and allowed his forehead to rest against Phoenix's shoulder, his eyelids fluttering closed. As much as he hated it when anyone, even Phoenix, was present to witness his moments of weakness, he couldn't deny that he appreciated Phoenix's warmth and tenderness. He had to pull away from him, however, when he was overcome by a coughing fit.

"Why don't you change and get into bed?" Phoenix suggested. "I'll bring you some food and medicine in a little bit, ok?"

"Hmm," Edgeworth agreed sleepily. Phoenix granted him one last kiss before helping him to his feet.

* * *

Phoenix joined Edgeworth in the bedroom twenty minutes later with the promised soup and medicine. He smiled to himself when he found Edgeworth curled up under the covers, trying valiantly not to fall asleep to the Steel Samurai rerun he was watching on TV while he waited for Phoenix. And he was wearing the pale pink silk pajamas that Phoenix found simultaneously adorable and ridiculous. He loved cuddling him when he wore those pajamas. Edgeworth snatched a tissue from the box beside him, burying his face in it as he sneezed several times in quick succession. He coughed weakly and blew his nose. The defense attorney carried the trays containing their dinner in slowly, setting them carefully on the bedside table.

"Impressive, Phoenix," Edgeworth croaked through his handful of tissues. "I half expected you to drop those trays."

"I'll have you know," Phoenix chided lightly, leaning down to kiss Edgeworth's burning forehead, "that you're speaking to an experienced tray-carrier. I used to wait tables at an Italian place during college."

He moved one tray, the one containing the Nyquil caplets, onto Edgeworth's lap, then crawled into bed beside him and taking his own tray. Edgeworth tossed back the medicine gratefully, following it with a swallow of wine. Phoenix tore into the bread, dunking it in soup before taking a bite. He smirked at Edgeworth who was blowing on a spoonful of soup in order to cool it.

"Shall I spoon feed you?" he offered cheekily. His proposal was met with the predictable eye roll.

"Please," Edgeworth scoffed. "I'm not terminally ill. It's nothing more than a common cold."

"I hope that's all it is," Phoenix said earnestly, his expression softening. "Your fever felt pretty high when I checked."

Edgeworth blushed slightly at the sight of Phoenix's sweet, sympathetic smile. "I assure you, Phoenix, your worry is unfounded. I'm sure I'll be back on my feet in no time."

Phoenix watched Edgeworth tentatively as he tasted the soup. "How is it?"

Edgeworth sniffled miserably. "It's adequate."

The defense attorney took a bite to test it and pouted. "Couldn't you swallow your pride just once and admit that it's good? I worked hard on it."

Edgeworth was about to explain that his cold was affecting his sense of taste and preventing him from fully appreciating it but he decided that he was too tired. "…I'm sorry. It's delicious," he conceded weakly.

Phoenix looked him over concernedly before sliding an arm behind Edgeworth's back and coaxing him into leaning against him. The two of them finished their soup in relative silence as they watched the Steel Samurai. Phoenix took to stroking Edgeworth's hair slowly, tracing the dark gray strands absentmindedly down Edgeworth's cheeks. It didn't take long for the prosecutor to fall asleep at Phoenix's side.

* * *

Phoenix shifted uneasily in his chair, a foreboding feeling creeping over him. He had left Edgeworth to his sleep after dinner, coming out into the front room to catch up on some reading so that he wouldn't disturb his sick lover's rest. The defense attorney knew that he was more susceptible to nightmares when he had a fever; perhaps the same was true for Edgeworth. After all, he knew for a fact that Edgeworth had frequently struggled with nightmares in the past, even when he was in perfect health. He strained his ears for any signs of life in the next door bedroom. Although it was faint, he thought he could hear Edgeworth stirring restlessly. Phoenix set down his book and made his way briskly back to the bedroom.

Just as he had feared, Edgeworth was stirring fitfully in bed, his wheezy breathing quick and uneven. Phoenix hurried to his side. The prosecutor hadn't awoken yet, still as tangled in his night terror as he was in the twisted sheets. Sweat stood out from his feverish face, and Phoenix could see crystalline streams of tears trickling down his cheeks. He reached out to cup Miles's cheek and took his hand in his. Edgeworth flinched at his touch and tried to squirm away.

"Miles!" Phoenix hissed, squeezing Edgeworth's hand and patting his cheek. "Hey, wake up!"

Edgeworth's eyelids sprang open with a shuddering gasp. His stormy gray eyes darted around nervously, still full of the terror and confusion brought on by his ugly dreams. Phoenix wiped away his tears gently with his thumb, offering him a tiny sympathetic smile. Edgeworth's eyes clenched shut again as he tried to get his emotions under control.

"A… nightmare?" he choked.

Phoenix nodded and handed him a tissue, waiting for him to blow his nose. Edgeworth sat up before accepting, averting his eyes in shame. Once he was done, Phoenix pulled him close and stroked his hair. Edgeworth's blazing cheek settled itself, hot and damp with tears and humiliation, in the crook of Phoenix's neck. Phoenix wanted to kiss him, but he knew that receiving that kind of comfort in these situations mortified Edgeworth, so he restrained himself.

"You ok, Miles?" Phoenix whispered.

"W-waking up crying like a s-sniveling child from something as t-trivial as a nightmare … how utterly d-degrading."

Edgeworth's voice shook with frustration and self-loathing and another half-stifled sob.

"Hey, we've both seen each other through this kind of stuff before, right?" Phoenix reminded him soothingly, thinking of the aftermath of the Elise Deauxnim case. "It's alright. Just calm down, take deep breaths…"

Edgeworth tried to heed his advice but he just ended up lapsing into a painful coughing fit. Phoenix got up and hurried to the bathroom to fetch him a glass of water. He sat down on the edge of the bed and helped the prosecutor tip the cool liquid down his parched throat. Edgeworth slumped against him, shaking and exhausted.

"S-stay with me…" he panted.

That request worried Phoenix a little. Even if they were in a relationship, the times when Edgeworth came straight out and asked him for something like that numbered close to zero. The man was simply too proud to make such requests. The fact that he was now willing to forgo that stubborn pride meant that he was really feeling awful.

However, Phoenix knew better than to voice his concern. Instead he just crawled obligingly into bed beside Edgeworth and pulled him close. Edgeworth clung to him like a lifeline, trembling like a leaf as Phoenix kissed the side of his neck and stroked his hair. He could tell from the deep, shuddering, raspy breaths that Edgeworth was trying to calm himself

Suddenly, the defense attorney recalled something that Edgeworth had once admitted to him after one of his particularly nasty earthquake episodes. Edgeworth had told him that the sound of Phoenix's voice was calming to him, that it anchored him when he felt sanity slipping away from his grasp. Granted, this situation was not as severe as the pure blind panic that enveloped Edgeworth during an earthquake, but perhaps the sound of Phoenix's voice could soothe him now, too. Phoenix cleared his throat and began to sing quietly.

Edgeworth started slightly when Phoenix's soft voice unexpectedly broke the near-silence. In his dazed, hazy, miserable state, it took the normally sharp-witted prosecutor a few seconds to realize that Phoenix was singing. He just barely had the presence of mind to be slightly surprised by this; he had never heard Phoenix sing before. Edgeworth was stunned by the unpredictably pleasant tenor voice issuing from his lover's throat. If he hadn't been so out of it, it probably would have turned him on.

His eyelids fluttered closed as he nestled his cheek closer against Phoenix's warm, strong body. The defense attorney's chest gave off a gentle pleasing vibration as his sweet voice rose and fell melodically in song. Edgeworth could feel some of his extreme discomfort melting away, even though he couldn't really make out the exact words. It was enough just to be able to hear the cadence of Phoenix's voice, and the steady beating of his heart keeping time just a little too slowly to match the lyrics. Edgeworth was vaguely aware that Phoenix was kissing his forehead in between verses and that his own consciousness was slowly slipping away.

When Phoenix looked down at the warm but shivering figure snuggled up against him, Edgeworth was fast asleep. His heart flooded with warmth at the knowledge that it had been his voice that had soothed his sick, distressed boyfriend to sleep. He pressed one last kiss to the top of Edgeworth's head before nuzzling his nose into the soft smoky gray hair and falling asleep with the prosecutor in his arms.


End file.
